Antenna Listening
Communication
=
Transformation
Once our basic needs are met, our life experience is, to a large degree, determined by the focus of our attention.
How we listen to ourselves and others determines the focus of our attention.
Antenna Listening trains us in deep listening. We practice listening to one another, which enhances all other listening.
In deep listening,
we remove the obstacles to communication.
True communication IS transformation.
In deep listening, much of what is hidden will be discovered. That which needs to be digested, can be digested.
everything that needs to grow, grows.
When we listen with metta
and are heard with metta, everything that we meet is transformed to compassion, insight, and willingness.
If this is interesting to you, read over the antenna listening guidelines here.
Antenna Listening was born out of DharmaBridge. Read more about the Origin Story of DharmaBridge here.
What Is Antenna Listening?
Antenna Listening is a simple reflective listening process that allows people to see themselves more clearly. In addition to being liberating for an individual, their relationships, and their community, it is a process which liberates at a political level, at the level of the collective.
Why is this called Antenna Listening?
In nature, antennae are sometimes referred to as "feelers." They are paired appendages used for
sensing touch, motion, heat, vibration, and especially smell or taste in arthropods. Receptors on the antennae bind to free-floating molecules, and send action potentials along neurons to the brain.
Similarly, human-made receiver antennae catch words, pictures, and information out of the air, in the form of radio waves, and feed them into a television, cell phone, or other device. Transmitter antennae, on the other hand, turn electrical signals into radio waves, so they can travel around the Earth or into space and back.
In the Antenna Listening process, we focus our attention on becoming as awake and clear as possible, becoming “feelers” for the deeper truth of essence nature, and the loving-kindness and compassion that arises from the essence of ourselves and our partners. As an "Antenna Receiver" we simply catch our partner's words and images. As an "Antenna Transmitter" we send the words and images back out as we heard them.
An antenna listening session is not a normal conversation. As a listener, your main job is resting in metta. You get to practice receiving metta from the larger “field” of consciousness, and transmitting it out to your partners. In the beginning, just setting the intention to be present with the other and to send metta is enough. In time, you’ll have moments where your sensitivity is enhanced. You may notice you have a stronger sense of metta running through you. You may sense what your partner is saying. You may notice you just relax more in the process of listening and holding presence. That is a gift to both of your nervous systems.
Antenna Listening is an Approach to
Radically Change How we Percieve
Perception is
Shaped By Specific Processes.
Attention to Process
leads to
Sparks of Insight.
Insight
is the foundation
of transformation.
Transformation is the only game in town.
Everything in us wants to move towards essence.
Moving towards essence is the definition of transformation.
The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing… not healing, not curing… that is a friend who cares.
– Henri Nouwen
